DOGS!!!!!

We went to the farm this weekend to visit. Jackson wasn't too sure about Daisy but we did get some pictures of them together.

Dirty Dan & his Dangerous Dogs

Aren't we the cutest pups ever?

Tired from a long day of playing

Darling Daisy

The Chicken Shit

Killer

In the past few weeks Jackson has been driven insane by the family of chipmunks that have moved into the landscaping in front of our apartment. Josh occasionally lets him off his leash to smell them out and chase them up the rain spout. Well tonight Josh did that as usual and a little chippy ran out of the drain spout. Well ,he met his maker pretty quickly as Jackson killed him pretty much instantly. This is surprising because Jackson is usually scared of his own shadow. We wouldn't expect him to actually catch and kill another living animal. It is really hard to believe that something this cute:

Could do this:

I am sure that you think that I am weird for taking this picture, but people take pictures of trophy bucks all the time. This is Jackson's trophy kill. I doubt he will catch anything ever again.

The DOG

Sometimes being a doggy parent is very wonderful and rewarding. Other times it is frustrating. Take yesterday as an example. I put Jackson in the bathroom as I usually do when I leave for work. When I came home I was greeted at the door by a little wagging tailed beast. I was bewildered as to how he had gotten out of the bathroom until I realized that I had locked him in the bathroom without shutting the pocket door to the spare bedroom. There were shredded Kleenexs EVERYWHERE. It wasn't until a little later that I found the chewed up tampon applicator from the bathroom garbage and gagged. All I have to say is at least it wasn't a tampon!! The thing is he knows that he is in trouble as soon as you get home and he huddles near the door all curled up so that you feel sorry for him and you don't yell at him. So I didn't say a word to him and let him out.

One of the funny stories that I have neglected to share was an experience we had the last time that we were at the farm. Betsy and Danny were playing catch. Betsy had to go inside for some reason and let Matt play with Danny. Either Jackson wasn't outside before or he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings, but he begins to chase the ball. He is running back and forth from Danny to Matt and back waiting to catch the ball. When a ball went soaring over someone's head he would race them to go and get the ball. He quickly realized that the ball was way to big for his little mouth then he forgot. Because each time the ball was overthrown he would run after it again. It was one of the funniest things that I have ever seen! That stupid dog will chase anything that you throw.

Jackson

Since I am on a photo post kick this week I decided to add another to the list. It has been a long time since I have done a Jackson post. Since Jackson did a kind of quirky thing this week I wanted to show you.

A view from the back

This is where Jackson sleeps daily

Ode to the Pup!

Since I have nothing fun to talk about lately I thought that I would show you some pictures of the king of the castle......

Some times I swear he is part cat. He loves being perched on top of the couch.

He just got woken up from his nap.

My mother wonders if he ever just stretches out. Here is the evidence:

Aren't I adoreable. I am the cutest, most well behaved dog ever?

He is such a diva always posing for the camera.

I will be writing a post tomorrow after my Dr's appointment to let you know what he has to say. Think happy thoughts at 10am.

Stupid Dogs

"Dogs chase a ball and bring it back to you. How dumb is that?"
-Paraphrased from my Aunt Mary Lou.

My question for her is.... "If it keeps him busy with little energy on your part, what is the problem?"

Jackson played Go Fetch all afternoon into the evening yesterday. He was occupied, having fun and he ran a lot. Needless to say he passed out in the car almost as soon as I pulled out of the driveway. He slept the whole way home. Only stirring to change positions. He walked into the house and plopped down on the couch. He got up to go potty, went back to the couch. I don't think he moved all night. He was laying exactly where I left him when I got up this morning. He was still hard to stir to get up to go potty this morning. The little thing is wore out. Atleast he had fun doing it.

Captain Barks-a-lot

I don't even know where to start begin because this situation frustrated me so much. Yesterday I go to the mail box and there is a letter from our landlord. The letter states that their rental load has become to much for them. That they are looking to sell the apartments. There will be an inspection done on Wednesday the 2nd from 1:30pm-5:30pm. On the bottom of the letter there is a note:
P.S. I am not sure of the precise time of the inspection though please keep your dog from barking during the inspection. I came to drop off your manuals and disposal wrench last week and it was barking quite loudly and for a long time and I hadn't even rung the bell!

This is of course paraphrased as I do not have the letter in front of me. So here were the thoughts running through my head:

1. He is a dog. Dogs bark.
2. He is a puppy still puppies bark.
3. At the time of the visit we lived in our apt for maybe 10 days. I know we aren't completely
adjusted how can we expect him to be?
4. If we aren't home we cannot stop our dog from barking.
5. If strangers enter our home when we are not present he will bark.
6. You were outside our home rustling a plastic bag. Hello that is noise.
7. He is locked up right next to the front door he can hear you.
8. How long did you stand outside the door? Did you think that maybe he was barking because
he could still hear you???????
9. If we have a baby are we going to have to sell it because it cries?

So I spent 15 minutes on the phone last night with this woman assuring her that the dog is and was still adjusting. We lived on a quiet street in a 1 level home. Now we live in a noisy neighborhood with an elephant family living upstairs. He and we need to adjust. We are thinking of locking the dog up in the bathroom in our bedroom so that he isn't so close to the door and door noises. 15 MINUTES!!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot explain how frustrated I was. We then devised a plan that they would come and look at our place first. Josh will leave at 1:30pm with the dog bring him back by 2:15p so Josh can go to his dentist apt. Ugh! Stupid old Bag!!!!! Next thing you know the new landlord will say we are making this a pet free apt complex. Well then what are we going to do? I know my parents would be a foster home for Jackson. We would miss the little guy. He is our baby. I love coming home to him. He is so excited when we return he cannot contain his excitement. He is a loving dog and a snuggly dog. I wouldn't want to give that up.......

Will the Barking Ever Stop?

As you know we bought a dog in March. He is turning 6 months old a week from today. I know that having a dog is hard work. You have to diligently train him and exercise them and everything. Somewhere in the past 4 months we went wrong. Jackson has turned into a barking, car chasing, cat taunting, peeing on the bedroom floor in the middle of the night fool. So being the good dog parents that we are we want him to stop doing this stuff before we sell him to the people who eat dog(trying to be pc). We keep threatening him that we will do it. But alas it never happens.

So last night I spent a large chunk of my evening at Petsmart. I really like the store a lot. I love all of the fun things that they have to keep our puppy occupied when we can't. It took a large chunk of the evening because the customer service was awful!! I walked around for atleast 10 minutes looking for an associate. I found one over by the reptiles messing with an aquarium. So I patiently waited for several minutes waiting for her to put it back together. When she was finished she started to walk away from me so I said "Ma'am I need some help." To which she replied in a snotty tone "I am helping someone else right now." So I waited for the Bitch to get off the phone to help me get into the pet electronics case to find something to make my dog stop barking. When she finally got off the phone she couldn't help me anyway so I had to wait another 15 minutes for a manager to come and open the case. I finally after 45 minutes walked out of the store with the machine that is supposed to stop dogs barking in an area.

This is a machine that when a dog barks continuously it makes a sound that they can only hear that makes them stop. It also has a manual push button to use when they aren't barking quite enough or loud enough to set the thing off. When I got home I tried it on Jackson several times with GREAT success. I am very happy with it so far.

Now if only they made something like that for Josh.........actually I wish that he would talk more.